Note: In a career context, all numbers are restricted between 0 and 5. However, in a match context, the numbers are not restricted. For simplicity, we are changing the scale here in the report and expressing every Match Impact number as a percentage. The maximum percentage (100) is assigned to the highest impact player of the match. All other players in the match are scaled relative to him. Negative Match Impact indicates that not only did the player not contribute in the match, but he also had an adverse effect on his team’s chances.​​

In what turned to be a lopsided decider in Visakhapatnam (29 Oct), India walloped New Zealand by 190 runs to take the series 3-2.

Rohit Sharma and Amit Mishra finished as the highest impact players of the fifth ODI.

Sharma – who was also the highest impact batsman – top scored (70 off 65 balls) and, over the course of his knock, featured in a 79-run partnership for the second wicket with Virat Kohli (65 off 76 balls) that set up the innings for the hosts.

Mishra put paid to any hope the visitors might have nursed as he scythed through the batting order, building pressure and helping himself to five wickets (including three top/middle-order). While he was economical and finished as the highest impact bowler of the evening (5-18 in 6 overs), this was also the highest impact performance of Mishra’s ODI career.

Trent Boult was New Zealand’s highest impact player for his one catch and two top/middle-order wickets (2-52 in 10 overs).

In a match where two Indians and four New Zealanders failed, the high impact performances of Rohit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel (18-ball 24 and 2-9), Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni (59-ball 41, one catch and one stumping) proved to be the difference.

In all, five Indian players registered a series-defining performance for their returns in the decider- Rohit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

This was also the ninth series-defining performance of Dhoni’s ODI career, helping him go past Kapil Dev as the highest impact player in India’s ODI history (min: 60 ODIs).